Using Custom Views to Display Information

Outlook uses forms to display the data in individual items. To see groups of items within a folder, you use views. By default, every Outlook folder includes a selection of built-in views available to all folders containing that item type. For specific tasks, create custom views to sort, filter, and group items as required.

Using Views to Display, Sort, and Filter Items

Every folder starts with a default view. For example, when you first open the Calendar folder, you see today's appointments alongside a list of tasks; you can switch to Recurring Appointments view to see a list of all recurring items, grouped according to whether they repeat Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. Likewise, items in the Contacts folder appear by default as address cards with minimal details, but you can choose to see more detailed cards or a simple Phone List view with one contact per row instead.

To switch between built-in views, use the drop-down list on the Advanced toolbar, or choose View, Current View and select an entry from the list of defined views. Outlook remembers the view you used most recently and reapplies that view whenever you return to that folder.

Customizing an Existing View

If none of the built-in views offers the arrangement of data you're looking for, you can customize the current view. As you'll learn shortly, you can change some aspects of a view directly, without using dialog boxes. To see all your customization options, choose View, Current View, Customize Current View. The View Summary dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 9.22.

The sections that follow explain how to modify each characteristic of the selected view; note that some of these options will not be available for specific view types. For example, you can't group items in the Contacts folder's Address Cards or Detailed Address Cards view. In Table-based views, you can also apply changes to the current view interactively.

If you've customized a built-in view and you need to undo your settings, see "Resetting the Standard Views" in the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this chapter.

Customizing Fields

You can add fields to the current view. If many of your contacts have mobile phones, for example, you might want to include that field in the Address Cards view of the Contacts folder. You can also remove fields from any view.

Using the View Summary dialog box, click the Fields button to display the Show Fields dialog box (see Figure 9.23). Select fields from the list on the left and click the Add button to add them to the current view. Select fields from the list on the right and click Remove to eliminate them from the view.

If you're customizing a table-based view, such as the Messages view of the Inbox or the Phone List view of the Contacts folder, you can drag and drop to add or remove fields. Click the Field Chooser button on the Advanced toolbar or right-click the field headings and choose Field Chooser to display a list such as the one shown in Figure 9.24. Drag fields onto the headings in the current view to add them to the view; to remove fields, drag column headings down onto the list itself, and release when you see the large X. Drag headings from side to side to change their left-to-right order in the list.

Grouping Items

Outlook's grouping options let you arrange the contents of a folder in outline style, with each item in the outline corresponding to a field you select. Most folders include ready-made By Category views—such as the one in Figure 9.25—which allow you to collapse or expand a list of items according to categories. The Contacts folder also includes three additional built-in views that use grouping—By Company, By Location, or By Follow-up Flag.

For maximum control over grouping options, click the Group By button in the View Summary dialog box. This displays the Group By dialog box shown in Figure 9.26.

You can group by multiple fields; for example, if you're planning a business trip you might want to group by State and then by Category to see all the contacts in a particular area organized according to categories you've defined.

In any table-based view, you can change grouping on-the-fly. To group by any field that's visible, right-click its column heading and choose Group By this Field. You can also drag headings into or out of the Group By box, which appears just above the column headings. Click the Group By Box button or right-click the column heading and choose Group By Box from the shortcut menus to show or hide this area. To move an item between groups in this type of view, just drag it out of its old group and drop it under the new group heading.

Sorting Items

In any view, you can sort your data in a specific order—by due date, for example, or by last name. In the View Summary dialog box, click the Sort button to choose up to four fields for sorting. In table-based views, click a column heading to quickly sort by that column. Click again to sort in reverse order.

Filtering Items

Filters show a subset of the items in any folder, based on criteria you define. The Overdue Tasks view in the Tasks folder, for example, displays only those tasks that you should have completed by now; if you inspect this view, you'll see that it uses a filter consisting of two items: Complete equals no, and Due Date on or before Yesterday. Likewise, the Annual Events view of the Calendar folder shows all the birthdays and anniversaries you've defined using a custom filter that shows only all-day events that recur yearly.

In combination with custom views, filters are a powerful way to manage information. In the Contacts folder, for example, you can define filters that show you only people who work for a specific company or who belong to a category you define. If you have a large family, you can create a filtered view of your Contacts folder that includes only people who share your last name or who belong to the Family category.

To define a filter for any view, open the View Summary dialog box, click the Filter button, and select the criteria you want to use in your filter. This dialog box is identical to the one used in the Advanced Find dialog box.

→ For more information about how to define filters and searches, see "Advanced Search Techniques".

Formats and Other View Settings

You can define custom display formats for many items in many views. In general, these options are available from shortcut menus. For example, in a table view, you can right-click any column heading to set its alignment (left, right, or center), change its column size to automatically fit the widest entry in the view, or change the column heading. Font changes apply to all fields in a section (card body or a row in a table); you can't pick out one field and format it separately.

From the View Summary dialog box, you can also set a variety of other options. Click the Other Settings button to see a dialog box like the one in Figure 9.27. The specific options vary by the type of view selected; in table views, as shown here, you can control whether or not it's permitted to edit in rows and whether gridlines appear.

The AutoPreview option is a useful way to see additional information about items that contain details. In your Inbox folder, it shows the first three lines of each message so you can tell at a glance what's inside without having to open and read each message. In other folders, you can use it to see details—notes about each person in your Contacts folder, for example, or the beginning of an appointment's description.

To add the AutoPreview option to a view's settings, use the View Summary dialog box, or click the AutoPreview button on the Advanced toolbar to hide and show this information on-the-fly.

Creating a New Custom View

Sometimes the fastest and surest way to create the view you're looking for is to start from scratch. To begin defining a new custom view, switch to the folder that contains the items you want to view, and then choose View, Current View, Define Views. Click the New button to display the dialog box shown in Figure 9.28.

All views start with one of the following arrangements.

Type of View	Description
Table	Default view for Tasks folder and Inbox, although you can use it with any folder. Displays data in worksheet style, with each item in its own row, each field in its own column, and headings for each column. Useful for displaying simple lists.
Timeline	A bar along the top displays days or hours; tiny icons underneath show all the items in the folder according to when they were created, received, or started. Especially useful with Tasks folder.
Card	Displays item title in bold, with selected details underneath. Most useful in Contacts folder, which includes two built-in Card views.
Day/Week/Month	Available for all folders, but appropriate only for the Calendar folder. Options determine how many days you can see at once; more days mean less detail for each entry.
Icon	Displays each item as a large or small icon with title text underneath, as in an Explorer window. You can't add fields or group by different fields. Default view for Notes folder is inappropriate for other item types.

After you select a view type, choose where you want to use the view from the set of three options at the bottom of the dialog box. Choose either the This Folder, Visible to Everyone or This Folder, Visible Only to Me options if you do not want the view to be available from the list of named views in other folders that contain the same type of data.

If you want the custom view type to be available for all folders containing the same type of items as the current folder, choose All <Item Type> Folders. In general, this is your best choice; make an exception when you've defined a view that is relevant only to a specific folder.

After completing this step, the process of creating a new view is identical to the procedure for customizing an existing view. Add fields, set grouping and filter options if necessary, and save the view under a new name.

Managing Custom Views

Outlook gives you a complete set of tools for managing custom views you create. Choose View, Current View, Define Views to display a dialog box listing all views available for the current folder. Select any entry in this list and use the following buttons to work with that view:

• Click Copy to make a copy of the selected view. Give the view a new name to add it to the list. This technique lets you experiment with view options without worrying that you'll mess up a view you've carefully constructed.

• Click Modify to edit any available view setting for the selected view. Note that you cannot change the view type, and some settings are unavailable for certain views.

• Click Rename to give a view a different name; the name you enter is the one that appears in the drop-down list on the Advanced toolbar.

• Click Delete to remove a custom view completely. Note that you cannot remove or rename Outlook's built-in views, although you can edit their settings.

• Click Reset to remove all customizations from a built-in Outlook view. This option is not available for custom views.

Opening a Folder in a Separate Window

If you use a single Outlook window, you'll notice after switching to a new folder that the Back and Forward buttons are no longer grayed out. These buttons are identical in function to those on the Internet Explorer toolbar: Click the drop-down arrows to the right of either button to see a list of previously viewed folders.

On a fast PC with sufficient memory, Outlook is quick to switch the display of information between folders. However, if you use Outlook regularly, you might prefer to open multiple windows—for example, one window to show your e-mail, another for your Calendar, and a third for Contacts. Outlook lets you open an unlimited number of windows at any time, and each can display any folder using any view.

To open an Outlook folder in its own window, right-click its icon in the Outlook Bar or in the Folder List and choose Open in New Window. Second and subsequent windows don't include the Outlook Bar, and each window gets its own taskbar button.